In residential communities, raking, collection and discarding of leaves is a major task in the fall of each year. The job of raking, picking up, storing and discarding in the trash is an effort that typically includes most members of a family. With rigid air pollution controls, it is no longer possible to burn the leaves on the location in a pile or in an outdoor burning device. The common practice is to rake the leaves into a pile and after considerable effort, arrange to pick them up and pack them into plastic bags which are carried to the curb and picked up by the local trash collector. In some cases, the leaves are stored in silage pit areas and recycled as fertilizer after biodegradation takes place naturally or with the aid of chemicals. In some cases, the raking process is a considerable burden because of health, age or some infirmity.
The present invention provides a device and a method by which the process of raking is essentially eliminated, allowing the homeowner to merely collect the leaves in a form in which they may be discarded directly to the trash collector or dumped into another container.
The prior art includes a wind break disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,226,091, to V. N. Root. An ensilaging means and method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,427,790 to W. J. Flitti. A screen is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,587, to Henry D. Dawbarn in his method for depositing particles. Wilkins, in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,454, describes a disposable garbage container in the form of a bag. Weed barriers and fence borders are described in a number of patents including U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,780 to Tommie Cowles, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,806,096, to John Eccleston, et al., and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,864 to Gary Keys. An accident screen is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,912, to obscure an accident site and prevent slowdown of traffic passing the site of the accident.
None of these devices satisfy the needs of the homeowner nor do they satisfy the following objects.
It is an object of this invention to provide a device and method which will collect leaves on the ground and allow their transport directly to the point of discard.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a device which will stop the leaves from being blown onto a chosen location in the yard and will further collect the leaves in a device for discard.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a device and a method by which an area recognized as a collection place for leaves on the yard may be equipped to allow collection of the leaves with little or no raking required.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a device which may be angled to receive the leaves and cause them to collect and pile up on the device for further collection.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a device that not only aids in collection of the leaves at a particular location on the yard, but allows their pickup and carrying with little or no need of additional tools and equipment.
It is an object of this invention to provide a device and method to allow collection of leaves in areas of the yard where no natural barrier is present to prevent the blowing of the leaves off the yard or to another part of the yard.
It is a further object of this invention to collect leaves around shrubs, trees and on flower gardens.
It is a particular object of this invention to provide a collection device and method that allows leaves to cover and protect perennial plants during the winter and yet allow for easy pickup of the leaves in the spring before the plants come up.